www.joedavidson.net

Sculpture is for me a fascinating area of art due to its proximity to functional objects. I have developed a body of work that uses construction materials and hardware to create a fictional world of urban and household mechanisms. I have combined this with the goal of achieving an aesthetically provocative collection of images. The medium’s utilitarian function is combined with its potential for acting as a tool for conceptual exploration. I have used many techniques and materials (both traditional and non traditional) in my attempt to create a dynamic dialogue between object and medium. This dialogue, or the junction of disjoint material and context, is what creates a sense of the poetic in my work.

The ideas which have inspired this body of work are numerous but include my experience of living in a densely populated urban environment and of constant contact with the possessions and refuse of others. I have most recently worked with ideas derived from the advertising of ‘lifestyle design’ as seen in so many home catalogues. These sources merge around notions of marketing a standardized urban aesthetic sensibility, a shared collection of communally understood and valued objects. I have attempted to take such design objects and reassign a value to them by placing them in a new environment so as to speak about those ordinary objects in extraordinary circumstances. My goal is always to create a connection to an object or material, and to then extract new meaning by tampering with its anticipated context.


Current pieces:
I have lately been focusing on a body of work that emphasizes mundane actions. I use scotch tape, a quite mundane material, as a casting element in sculpture. I think of the process of making objects of tape in the same way that one may think of knitting: something you do while focusing on some other (usually) sedentary activity. I am always making these pieces while watching television, listening to music, or having conversation. As always, the focus is not on the process of making the art, but in the product as a result of complacent activities.
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